Thursday Sept. 27, 2007
www.theloquitur.com
PERSPECTIVES | 7
Campus changes would make Where have all the study lounges gone? students feel more at college I N M Y O P I NI O N IN M Y O PI N I ON
B R I T TA N Y M c L E O D STAFF WRITER BLM726@CABRINI.EDU
As a junior at Cabrini, not once have I said to myself, “Wow, this place is awesome!” It’s always been along the lines of, “I feel like I’m in high school,” or “Why is there never anything to eat?” It’s a shame the last three years of my life have been miserable. Okay, so miserable is a little overboard but does anyone else feel like life at Cabrini can be a thousand times better with some simple changes? There are a number of things I love about this college, but lately, when I weigh the good with the bad, the bad seems to be much more evident. I understand every school has its cons, but never did I expect to completely regret my decision to attend Cabrini. People everywhere are different, which is why I was initially excited to come to college. A small campus within driving distance to the city, an athletic program that has flourished throughout the years, what
wouldn’t there be to like? But as the years have progressed, I’ve come to realize I do not feel as if I’m attending college at all. Instead, I feel as if I’m on lockdown after only 10 o’clock at night and I can’t get a quick bite to eat on a Sunday afternoon. I, along with many others, feel the money used for the new welcome center could have gone towards a much more worthy project. Maybe it would have been more beneficial to add some parking spots around campus, expand the cafeteria, or maybe add an on-site market or student center? Just to name a few. Perhaps a brand new welcome center with enough space for a bike to drive through would have been better to build a few years down the road and not before the more prominent discrepancies around campus could be taken care of. My dad asks me what I eat every day for every meal, I mean, why shouldn’t he, he does pay five grand for a meal plan. “Well, the caf was closed by the time I woke up so I went to Jazzman’s and got a muffin,” I tell him. “What about a drink or anything else?” he responds. My answer is that I can’t even afford anything else with the $3 meal exchange given to me for breakfast. My question is, why is
it that when I have a guest come to dinner with me, they have to pay $6.75 in the cafeteria, but the meal exchange equivalency is only $5 in Jazzman’s. If the excuse is the cafeteria food is of better quality than Jazzman’s, don’t talk to me. I realize that Cabrini is trying to expand itself to one day become a university and I’m all for it. However, when there is not enough space to accommodate everyone, it becomes an extremely aggravating problem. I’m aware that expansion and construction takes time and money but perhaps it would have been better to start accepting more students when there is enough room for them to sit in the cafeteria. That said, life at Cabrini is bearable, right? Who hasn’t been irritated by a suspicious security guard or the fact that there is never any parking available on campus? It’s something I’m sure everyone at every college has had to deal with. Still, why hasn’t anyone said anything about it? Perhaps it’s because most of the people affected by these problems escape every weekend and head home to vent to their parents, the ones who have to handle most of our finances. So maybe home is the answer. A faculty member told me the best way to see change is to have your
parents write a letter to the President or someone else in charge. This is a possible solution. But could it be that simple? Probably not. My idea is that the entire student body, or at least those unhappy with certain aspects of life at Cabrini, join together and genuinely speak up about what they think should change in order for students to be happy and to stay here on the weekends. Hopefully, they’ll finally listen to us. Instead of completely bashing Cabrini, I do have to extend a thank you to the faculty and staff here. The wonderful professors who teach us, the great people who serve us everyday in the cafeteria, the fantastic cleaning services provided daily and even the landscape and ground maintenance around campus are continually exceptional. Still, I can’t back down from my view of how things should be done around here. I know wherever I would have gone to college there would be things I would think need to change but I am not anywhere else, I’m at Cabrini College. This is where we live, this is where we learn and I feel that in order for us to get the best of every aspect of college life we need to first and foremost be happy. Are you?
CHRIS CAMPELLONE STAFF WRITER CLC726@CABRINI.EDU
Cabrini has achieved a lot of progress in the past few years and because of that progress they have begun to admit more students each year. But does Cabrini really have room for all of these students to live on campus? Well if they don’t have room, they’ll make room. That seemed to be their mentality when the Rooymans center was converted into Rooymans Hall and East Residence Hall, West Residence Hall and the Cabrini Apartment Complex were created. But Cabrini couldn’t stop there. They needed even more room to meet the living demands of the freshman crop. That’s where they got creative. I sit in my room and realize that there’s just something about it that doesn’t seem like it was meant to be a bedroom. The reason I feel this way is because the room I live in used to be the study lounge for Dixon House. Now some may say that I should be happy to have
such a large room and believe me, I really am grateful. However, I can’t help but feel guilty for those on the floor looking for some place to study that is calm and quiet. Well, my room was originally intended to be a study lounge. It should not even be an option to convert lounges into rooms. What about the library? People can go there to study right? Holy Spirit Library is open until 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday as well as Sunday. However, the library closes its doors at 8 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. The absence of lounges and the limited hours of the library keep us from being able to study in to the late hours of the night. East Residence Hall, Xavier Hall, Maguire House and Infante House are all equipped with study lounges, but what about Woodcrest Hall, Rooymans Hall and Dixon House? Are all undergraduate residents not created equal? Cabrini has begun to address this problem in their five-year strategic plan, but what about the students on campus now? It seems to me that Cabrini is willing to make sacrifices in order to get more tuition. So what if a handful of students have nowhere to study at night. There are always more students to admit--more students to disappoint.
Just say no to reunions Stop shopping, start saving I N MY O P I N I ON
JESSICA STORM STAFF WRITER
JLS728@CABRINI.EDU
I was never a fan of bands like the Backstreet Boys or ‘N Sync, even back in the day when bands like that were considered Godlike and all those who did not agree with the masses were shunned as if they had some horrible contagious disease. The only thing that comes to mind when I think of these bands are cheesy music videos and screaming crying girls, enough to rival the Beatles. I trudged through hordes of singing and dancing pre-teens, holding my hands over my ears so their infectious music
could not turn me into one of them. Now, I cannot say that I am completely innocent. I did go through a short yet nonetheless embarrassing phase of Spice Girls mania but I would by no means consider my self an ex-teeny bopper. It was only for a few weeks! So when I hear about Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls reunions, it makes me scratch my head. What was so wonderful about these bands that would make people want them to reunite? Were the Backstreet Boys really some musical genius that I never took notice to? Were Spice Girls songs actually so empowering that they could be the start of some radical feminist movement? Both of these notions are highly doubtful, although the concept of “Girl Power” is quite charming. This type of music appealed to us when we were younger and may have
helped some people get through some tough times, like when they broke up with their boyfriend of two weeks, or their mom refused to buy them that new video game. But we are older now. Most of us, with the exception of a few, have grown up, so why do we need to return to our childhood via some mediocre bands who are just concerned with getting back into the limelight and making a few more bucks? Isn’t it time that we let go of these teeny bopper bands and moved on to something better? Quite frankly, it makes me embarrassed to say that I come from a generation that values this type of musical contribution, and I wish that these bands would just fall back off the face of the Earth like they did a few years ago. To put it quite simply, reunions should be left for bands that are actually good.
IN MY OPINION
DANIELLE FEOLE STAFF WRITER DF727@CABRINI.EDU
Becoming good at saving or budgeting your money can take tons of stress off your back. Personally, I am not one of the best students at saving money, but since I’m getting older I’d like to become more responsible with my money and stop being such a shopaholic. The main reason I am bad at saving money is because I love to shop. I can always find an excuse to buy something I like, even if I do not have the money for it at that particular time. Now that I am living off campus, starting a new job and paying more bills I
have thought of new ways that I can become better at saving money and realize how important it really is to save. To earn money, I waitress at the Freehouse on North Wayne Ave. Also, I am a student ambassador and give tours of Cabrini for the admissions office. I have a pet peeve of buying things with change, so I have a change jar that I cash in once it becomes full. Change adds up to be a lot of money, so everytime I throw a handful in I feel that I am saving a little more. With the semester at a start, it is hard for me to work a lot. Having a credit card is one of the main reasons why I am not so good at saving money. Recently, I have stopped using my credit card and I now feel much better about saving and my spending habits. I try to share books with friends whenever it is possible, to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on a book you may not even use.
Living off campus, I do not overuse appliances and I’m always turning off lights. I try to only use the air when necessary and my roommates and I go grocery shopping every week or so to avoid eating out regularly. Eating out regularly makes saving money extremely hard. Also, my roommates and I try to carpool to class when we can, which helps to save gas considering gas prices are so high. I have a checking and savings account, but I only use my checking account. I want to start using my savings account, because you can’t access the money in the account with your visa card. Over the summer, I work five days a week to put away money for the upcoming year, so that I don’t have trouble trying to balance classes, homework, and a job too many nights a week. Also, I try to work as much as I can over semester breaks.